A.P. Herbert

1890-1971

A.P. Herbert was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. In August 1914 he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and early in 1915 became an officer in the Hawke Battalion of the Royal Naval Division. On 27 May 1915 the Hawke Battalion landed at Gallipoli, a month after the original landings. A week later the battalion suffered heavy casualties during the third battle of Krithia. Herbert survived but was invalided home at the end of July. In Summer 1916 he rejoined his unit in France and was one of only two Hawke Battalion officers to emerge unscathed from the Battle of the Ancre. He was badly wounded at Gavrell, near Arras, in April 1917 and invalided home. He was on the staff of the magazine Punch from 1924 and MP for Oxford University from 1933 to 1945.

His novel, The Secret Battle, drawing upon his experiences during the war, was published in 1919.